Brew day tomorrow

[Paul Cannell]

I'm brewing tomorrow and i'll be following the instructions that are on the attached image. It's my first AG attempt.

I have a few questions that I hope you guys can help with.

First of all, is there anything you would chance in my list of instructions. I have created them from consulting books and other instructions and maybe gone a little freestyle as well.

Second, dry hopping. Do I wait until fermentation has finished until I add the hops or do I add them at the same time as the yeast?

Third, the original instructions don't have a definitive boil time, just hop addition times, the longest of which is 60 min. Is that my total boiling time or should the wort be boiling for some length of time before the first hop addition?

Forth, do you think having a strike temperature of 74 degrees will result in a 66 degree mash temperature? (I just estimated).

Fifthly, do you think my sparging quantities are accurate?

Lastly, is it a requirement to re-hydrate the yeast prior to adding it? With my extract brewing I have always just sprinkled the dry yeast into the fermenter.

Thanks

[Richard Rice]

First of all, you will need to Mash and Boil for 90 minutes each if you are using Pilsner Malt.  Pilsner Malt naturally contains DMS (which produces the Cooked Corn smell) and the only way to remove it is to mash and boil for longer.  I might be wrong about the mashing, but definitely needs a 90 minute boil.

I don't know about the dry hopping - I've seen recipes that have all sorts of different dry hopping additions.  Some are 4 days, and then 4 days later.  Some are after krausen drops then 4 days later.  Best advice I've had is to not leave your dry hops in too long, the beer may start to tast vegetal.

Hop additions can start once the boil is on.  You need to wait for the hotbreak, but once that hits, boil has started and you can begin putting in the hops anytime.

I think 74C will result in a higher mash temp, personally, but my biggest question here is, are you using any kind of recipe software?  Brewmate?  Beersmith? Brewtoad?  They will all calculate exactly how much water you need and it takes into account Grain Absorption, Grain temp, losses to trub and chiller, evaporation rates during boil off and adjusts the volume of water accordingly.  I'm still fine tuning my process with the software and I've been doing this well over 6 months now.

Same for sparging.

I don't know if it's a requirement to re-hydrate yeast...I always did until I tried some Mangrove Jack's yeast and Andrew always pitches dry directly on top.

What sort of OG are you looking for?  IBUs? 

So, I just put your volumes into the software I use and you will need a lot more water. 14.6L of mash water.  12.87 for sparging.  Also, you'll also only want the strike water at about 72C!

I think my first piece of advice is to get some software that can help you out with these volumes.  I'd never be able to figure out recipes without it!

 

I'm still relatively new at this, so others might have some different advice.

[Paul Cannell]

Ok thanks for that, It's helpful. In regards to OG and IBUs, I don't really know what i'm looking for. The guy at the brewshop gave me this configuration so i just assumed he knew what he was talking about. Maybe the brew software would help me understand it a little better.

In regards to the mash and sparging water, is that for 2 sparges? that seems like a lot of water for a 19l end result??

[Richard Rice]

It is a lot of water, but remember a good chunk of this will evaporate during the 90 minute boil.  Also, a portion of your mash water will also evaporate and be absorbed by the grain!  Ideally, you should still end up with about 19L remaining.  I usually throw in a couple of extra litres for mash out but I always deduct that from my sparge volume, otherwise you get more volume and lower numbers.

 

What I saw on my spreadsheet was this will be a 6% Pale Ale, so at the high end for the style.  Depending on your efficiency, you should be at about 1.059 OG.

 

Double checked and those hop additions are going to give you a nice big 65 IBUs. To put that in perspective, Liberty Sauvignon Bomb is 70IBUs, and Epic Pale Ale is, I think, about 45.  So you may wish to dial that back a bit, but entirely up to you and how much bitterness you like!

 

[Scott H]

System losses will be different for your own equipment so once you have your gear dialed in the volumes will prob change.
The first step I would do for this is finding out your kettles boil off rate. Put 5-10 litres in it boil it for 20 min then measure what's left and multiply what's missing by 3 for your hourly boil off.
Dry hopping is normally done once the majority of primary get
Is complete. I dry hop a week after pitching yeast and leave the hops in for 5-7 days.

[Paul Cannell]

Roger that.

[Paul Cannell]

Here's how it went. Pre boil gravity 1.050, post boil 1.066. Will dry hop after 5 day, crash cool after 10 and keg after 13 days.

[Richard Rice]

Awesome!  So, final volume?  It's darker than I thought it might be, but that's no drama.

 

What hop additions did you end up going with?

 

Most importantly tho, are you happy with the result?

[Paul Cannell]

Yea it's darker than i thought it would be as well. Boiled for 90min and went with 60 10 and 1 min additions. Recipe says dry hop for 10 days but I'm going to wait for fermentation then do it for 5 days. Final volume was bang on 19L. I lost about 5L in the boil. Recipe said original gravity of 1059 so I missed that by a fair bit. Not sure how to work out efficiency of what the higher gravity will mean.